1. Summary of the Invention
The present inventions relate to transgenic monocot plants and, more particularly, to transgenic aloe plants and methods and compositions for producing a transgenic aloe plant and methods for extracting proteins from the transgenic aloe plants.
2. Description of the Related Art
There continues to be a growing market for biologically active proteins many of which are used for therapeutic purposes. Currently, there are over 160 protein based medicines available. An additional fifty or so are expected to be approved over the next couple of years. Current demand for therapeutic protein production is already outstripping the industry's capacity. It has been predicted that the industry will need to increase its capacity by four to five times to overcome this bottleneck. However, production facilities for therapeutic proteins are expensive and typically take a long time to build. Accordingly, a need exists for production methods that are less expensive and may reduce the time required to ramp up production.
Some animal based protein production methods are used. However, these frequently introduce health risks from diseases. Such risks may arise from cross-contamination with diseases that may affect both the animal and the end user such as a human patient. Accordingly, a need exists for a production method that will eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination between the production organism and the end user.
In addition, many current production methods require extensive processing in order to extract the therapeutic protein from the animal or other host organism in which it was produced and to get the compound into a condition where it may be utilized by a patient. After purification, the protein may be combined with an adjuvant or other carrier material to stabilize the protein and to permit the utilization by a patient. However, the processes of extraction, purification, resuspension among others involved with the processing of a therapeutic protein is complex and cumbersome and may not be conducive to use in underdeveloped countries in need of therapeutics generally. Accordingly, a need exists for simplified production methods which may eliminate or reduce the post extraction processing of therapeutic proteins.